Various - Infrastructure Facticity

Various - Infrastructure Facticity
When Function relaunched Infastructure New York (together with Ed Davenport, AKA Inland), the goal was to release techno with classic foundations and modern aesthetics. So far he's mostly succeeded. The label has found a dazzlingnewcomer in Campbell Irvine, gleaned glossy hardware techno from Cassegrain & Tin Man and released a stellar album from Echoplex as Post Scriptum. They've done a few clever reissues reissues as well, underlining the connection between past and present. Now, Infrastructure fully fleshes out its style with a quadruple-LP compilation, Facticity.

Though there are a bunch of fresh faces on Facticity, the best tunes come from the regulars. Campbell Irvine starts things off with the brilliant "Dislocation Is The Only Beginning," where bright chimes rub up against a darker undercurrent. Function goes ethereal on "Low Lights & Trick Mirrors," a track that calls to mind Artificial Intelligence. Post Scriptum offers two slabs of warehouse techno, which sound like they're made of steel and concrete themselves. Cassegrain & Tin Man's "Polyacid Blue" is perfectly encapsulates the Infrastructure aesthetic: familiar, tough as nails and melodic without getting emotional.

The guests deliver more mixed results. Blue Hour, a Berlin-based Brit who is already a Function favourite, contributes a highlight with the Jeff Mills-esque "Averting." It's enough to make you wonder why he hasn't had a full release on the label already. Vatican Shadow's "Swords Over Paradise," on the other hand, is a slice of melodrama that doesn't quite fit, and Efdemin's "Kassiber" feels less engaging than everything else here.

Facticity comes out at the same time as Blueprint's Structures And Solutionscompilation, and the two make a good odd couple—Infrastructure is nearly as old as its UK counterpart. Both labels are run by techno visionaries who have managed to keep their perspectives fresh and relevant, partly by keeping one foot in the past. No matter how focused techno is on the future, there's also immense value in its history. If Facticity is Infrastructure's manifesto, maybe that's its main point.